In many consumer product industries, manufacturers produce consumer goods to be sold in retail stores. For example, furniture manufacturers may produce furniture items and sell the furniture items to retailers and/or dealers at a manufacturer's price or a wholesale price. The retailers and/or dealers may then sell the furniture items to consumers in a retail furniture store or warehouse at an increased retail price. The retail price may include a margin which may cover operating costs, shipping and handling costs, overhead, other costs of doing business and provide a profit for the retailer.
Many furniture retailers offer a wider variety of furniture items than they may have in stock or on display in retail showrooms at a given time. Therefore, retailers often have furniture catalogs from which consumers may view and select one or more furniture items. However, as in many retail industries, furniture retailers often vary the retail prices of the furniture items that they sell to coincide with sales events, changing supply and demand, and other market forces. These market forces may also affect the furniture manufacturer's inventory. Accordingly, it is often difficult and impractical for a salesperson to obtain pricing, availability and other up-to-date product information while a customer waits in a retail showroom, which may result in unhappy customers and/or lost sales.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.